Despite much of the hoopla surrounding Venom that it would be darker, bloodier, and more R-rated than most superhero fare, the Sony comic book movie has been saddled with a teen-friendly PG-13 rating. It’s a rating that makes sense considering the film’s supposed appeal to “the fans,” most of whom are teen boys. But it’s one that doesn’t live up to Sony’s year-long hype train of Venom as a dark and dangerous spin on the superhero movie — nor to that buzzy San Diego Comic-Con scene involving Venom’s teeth and someone’s head.

But director Ruben Fleischer teased that a potential Venom unrated cut could appease fans wishing for something more brutal.

In an interview with Fandango, Fleischer teased that there was a chance that fans could see a Venom unrated cut on home video release:

“I wouldn’t rule anything out. We’ll have to see where it lands, I guess, but I wouldn’t rule anything out.”

An unrated Venom cut would surely be more violent and unhinged than the final theatrical cut, which was officially rated as PG-13 amidst reports that Sony and Fleischer pulled back on the brutal elements a bit in anticipation of a possible Spider-Man crossover. However, this flew in the face of early buzz that the Venom project would be an R-rated movie with elements of sci-fi and horror mixed in.

It’s possible this unrated cut could contain scenes that were chopped to push down the rating over to PG-13, or that Fleischer shot more scenes that would shift the film to an R-rating, like James Mangold did on The Wolverine. The only question now is whether Venom’s already infamous line, “turd in the wind,” belonged to the R-rated cut.

However, that doesn’t mean the theatrical cut will be entirely family-friendly. Fleischer insists that Venom still plans to set itself apart from other comic book movies by leaning into its gritty qualities:

“When I set out to make the movie, I wanted to distinguish the film tonally, and I wanted to make a darker, grittier, kind of edgier comic book movie that also has a strong horror element, which is inherent to the character and the comic. Those were the aspects: darker, edgier, grittier. I think Tom Hardy embodies all of those qualities. The combination of Tom, Venom the character, and then the look of the film, which we really tried to make look, like I just said, edgy and gritty and dark and grounded of this world.”